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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Carjacker convicted after his DNA is found on cigarette in the recovered car – OCRegister

Posted: May 2, 2017 at 10:36 pm

SANTA ANA A carjacker from Orange has been sentenced to three years in prison after authorities identified him through DNA he left on a cigarette in the recovered car.

Gary Munoz, 30, was arrested, charged and convicted in less than two months, thanks to the countys RAPID DNA program, the Orange County District Attorneys Office said in a Tuesday statement.

On March 9 at about 3:30 p.m., Munoz approached an idling car in a parking lot off of Imperial Highway in Brea, prosecutors said. Awoman was in the passenger seat while the driver was out looking for an ATM machine.

Munoz forced the woman out and then fled.

Brea police found the car parked less than two miles away on Jasmine Drive. Among the evidence, officers collected a used cigarette in the cup holder and submitted it for forensic analysis.

On March 15, investigators got a match to Munozs DNA profile in the local database; his DNA was in the system because of a prior conviction. He was arrested on March 22 and pleaded guilty on April 27, accepting the courts offer of three years, to one felony count of carjacking.

The countys RAPID DNA program, which launched in 2015, uses aninstrument that can generate a DNA profile from evidence collected at a crime scene in less than two hours, prosecutors said.

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Crime lab backlog leads to 8-month delay on rape kit DNA analysis – WLOS

Posted: at 10:36 pm

The Edneyville crime lab adjacent to the Henderson County Justice Center is slated to open in June. That facility will begin doing DNA testing starting in September, which should help improve the turnaround time for test results. (Photo credit: WLOS staff)

Dominique Harris, who is in jail on $190,000 bond, is charged with second-degree rape and kidnapping. The alleged crime took place in West Asheville last May. But it took months for results of a rape kit to come back, allowing Asheville police to arrest Harris.

Attorney General Josh Stein said he was familiar with the case.

I think it took about eight months for the lab to turn around the results in this test, Stein said. And, in my view, eight months is too long.

Every day that goes by that those kits aren't back and we don't have the answers, nothing with the justice system can begin, and it builds on that anxiety, said Andi Craven, program director for Henderson Countys Justice Center.

Craven is not familiar with Harris case, but she is well aware of long-reported backlog problems with DNA testing for rape kits.

Stein said salaries for forensic scientists have been raised to $50,000-$65,000. He said that has helped with retention of important staff.

The Edneyville crime lab adjacent to the Henderson County Justice Center is slated to open in June. That facility will begin doing DNA testing starting in September. The goal, Stein said, is to reduce turnaround times to less than eight months, which he said is the average time for evidence analysis. Scientists now training in Raleigh will begin working on DNA testing as soon as their training is complete. Lab techs, Stein said, have also been hired to free up scientists to do testing.

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Crime lab backlog leads to 8-month delay on rape kit DNA analysis - WLOS

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Ricketts vows ‘swift action’ to collect DNA from inmates; senators consider investigation into prison system – Omaha World-Herald

Posted: at 10:36 pm

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said the state will take swift action to obtain inmates DNA samples in light of a World-Herald report Sunday that revealed that 73 inmates have refused to comply with state law requiring convicted felons to submit a DNA sample.

I agree public safety is at risk if these DNA samples are not collected, Ricketts said in a statement. I understand our options to obtain these samples and will take swift action.

He didnt clarify what that action might be.

Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said Tuesday that he wants to stick with the Corrections Departments current methodical plan for progressive discipline misconduct reports, loss of privileges and the possible loss of good-behavior credit.

Some law enforcement officials, including Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine and Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer, have called on Corrections to immediately use force to obtain a refusing prisoners DNA sample.

I believe, ultimately, we can, Peterson said.

Peterson said, however, that he wants to be diligent about allowing the progressive discipline process to work because that will give us a much better idea of where we stand with the inmates who are refusing. But I cant estimate how quickly Corrections will be able to do that. They know its a priority for us.

Members of the Nebraska Legislature, meanwhile, were exploring possible actions to investigate the states embattled prison system burdened by overcrowding, understaffing, uprisings and inmates deaths.

State senators expressed dismay over the April 15 death of inmate Terry Berry. Berry, a 22-year-old check forger who had minimal time left in prison was placed in the same cell with Patrick Schroeder, a convicted killer serving a life sentence. Schroeder now stands charged with first-degree murder after authorities allege he strangled Berry with a towel.

Prison officials also placed inmate Christine Bordeaux in the same cell as Erica Jenkins the cousin she testified against and helped convict of murder. Authorities allege Jenkins beat Bordeaux to a pulp at the York womens prison. Bordeaux survived with serious injuries.

Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said state officials have been trying to address larger issues of overcrowding and understaffing in Nebraskas prisons.

But just as were paying attention to the big things, Krist said, it seems that Rome is burning right under our nose operationally.

Krist said he soon will propose a legislative resolution calling on his colleagues to convene another special committee this summer to investigate the management problems that have, among other things, led to five deaths in Nebraskas prisons in the past two years. The committee would be modeled after a prison investigative committee that held hearings and dominated headlines in 2014.

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said he supports the rejuvenation of the committee, in part to probe the five recent deaths and the placement of Bordeaux with the woman she testified against.

People are being killed, theyre being assaulted, both inmates and employees, there have been riots, great destruction of property, inmates endangered when fires took place, and theyve been kept in their cells with all the smoke, Chambers said. Its just more than ought to be tolerated.

Other senators werent so sure a separate committee is needed.

Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete, chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee, said this week she does not favor relaunching the prison investigative committee.

She said she thinks most of the eight members of the Judiciary Committee may opt instead to bring Scott Frakes, director of the Department of Correctional Services, before them to answer questions on prison issues.

Ebke expressed concerns about the DNA testing issue, but said shes inclined to believe the Legislature can get answers without going to the lengths taken in 2014.

I feel pretty strongly about this. I dont want to overburden Corrections staff or micromanage too much, she said. I dont want to go on a broad, sweeping investigation and take up more of their time at a time theyre trying to deal with multiple issues.

State Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus said he also thinks the Judiciary Committee can tackle the matter. However, Schumacher said, many of these issues wont be resolved without biting the bullet and addressing Nebraskas overcrowded prisons.

Investigating something that you already know the answer to isnt terribly fruitful, Schumacher said. I dont think its a new phenomenon in our prisons; its just a continuation of the same old stuff. It appears to me these most recent things should have been caught by common sense.

Krist said the DNA issue smacks of the problems that caused state senators to commission the 2014 investigative committee. That investigation, initiated to look into spree killer Nikko Jenkins release, was expanded after The World-Herald revealed that prison officials had illegally set early release dates for 750 prisoners.

Senators noted similarities between the DNA refusals and the 2014 problems: violent offenders benefiting from prisons inaction; issues of where inmates are placed; and prison officials not acting decisively after a Nebraska Supreme Court ruling.

Ricketts said he has spoken with Frakes, Peterson and Kleine about the DNA collection issue.

The issue dates to 1997, when the Nebraska Legislature first required convicted sex offenders to submit a DNA sample. Then-Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg issued an opinion advising Corrections that, based on state senators comments, they could not use force to obtain an inmates DNA. However, two months later the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld Omaha polices use of force to extract blood from a serial rapist.

Eventually, Peterson said, the state may need to go to the courts to get an order to allow the use of force to obtain a refusing prisoners DNA.

Chambers said he is against forced DNA collection from convicted felons a process that is allowed in several states. He called it the crowning crime against humanity.

The real crime, Kleine said, is a victim not knowing the identity of his or her attacker because Corrections has failed to collect an inmates DNA.

In their phone conversation, Kleine said, Ricketts indicated he had been unaware of the DNA refusals.

The governor was very adamant that he wanted something to happen, Kleine said. So that was encouraging.

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Ricketts vows 'swift action' to collect DNA from inmates; senators consider investigation into prison system - Omaha World-Herald

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Following Your DNA Trail – New York Times

Posted: at 10:36 pm

New York Times

Following Your DNA Trail
New York Times
Last week's exploration of people's reactions to their DNA makeup prompted readers to share what they learned when their test results came in. Adoptees wrote in about the relief they felt in making a discovery about their roots. Others expressed ...

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Following Your DNA Trail - New York Times

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The first sequencing of a channel catfish genome – Phys.Org

Posted: at 10:35 pm

May 1, 2017 by Sandra Avant ARS research helps catfish producers, like these in Mississippi, improve fish quality and quantity. Credit: Stephen Ausmus

A fish named "Coco" is at the center of the first genome sequence for any catfish species.

Catfish is an important dietary protein source and is the third most commonly farmed fish worldwide. While more than 2,500 species of catfish are known to exist, the channel catfish dominates U.S. aquaculture, accounting for more than 60 percent of fish and seafood production. In 2015, production sales for U.S. catfish growers totaled $361 million, up 3 percent from the previous year, according to USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Research at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit (WARU) in Stoneville, Mississippi, helps catfish producers improve the quality and quantity of their products. Recently, a team led by WARU molecular biologist Geoff Waldbieser and Auburn University scientist John Liu produced the first genome-sequence assembly for the channel catfish. It's also the first for any type of catfish.

The total complement of DNA in the cell is called the "genome," and the catfish genome, like an instruction manual, contains the information needed to make and "operate" each fish. The catfish genome-sequence assembly gives scientists the ability to read the instruction manual for each individual catfish and look for differences that make some animals grow faster or resist disease better.

Waldbieser used a special breeding technique called "gynogenesis" to produce the genome donor, Coco, so that she contained two copies of DNAlike other animalsexcept that both copies were completely identical.

"I named her after Coco Chanel, because she's Channel No. 1," Waldbieser says.

Collaborating with ARS scientists at the Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Unit in Stoneville and the Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, Waldbieser produced about 800 million DNA sequences from Coco's DNA.

"Those sequences were like puzzle pieces. It took 2 months on a 64-processor computer workstation to align them and produce the genome assembly," Waldbieser says.

Waldbieser and WARU geneticist Brian Bosworth recently used Coco's genome to identify variation in DNA sequences between individual catfish within the Delta Select linean improved catfish line being developed at WARU for use by farmers. "Now that we know where the genetic variations in the DNA sequences are located, we will be able to analyze different parts of the genome inherited by different individual catfish," Waldbieser says. "We can identify those segments, propagate them to our fish population, and improve meat production and production efficiency for farmers."

This is important, because improving catfish growth rate, fillet yield, meat quality, and disease resistance will greatly benefit fish farmers, Waldbieser adds.

Explore further: Breeding hybrid catfish

More information: Qifan Zeng et al. Development of a 690 K SNP array in catfish and its application for genetic mapping and validation of the reference genome sequence, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/srep40347

In the catfish industry, it's well-known that hybrid catfisha cross of the channel catfish with the blue catfishgenerally have better growth, higher survival rates and better meat yield than purebred channel catfish. ...

Researchers in the Philippines are studying the genetics of local catfish to help protect them from becoming endangered.

The aquaculture industry is taking notice of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research that gives the precise levels of dissolved oxygen needed to keep pond-raised catfish alive and growing.

During a survey of the freshwater fishes of the Mali Hka River drainage in the Hponkanrazi Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar, scientists Xiao-Yong Chen, Tao Qin and Zhi-Ying Chen, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), identified ...

Large catfish in a desert river in the Pilbara are eating native mice when available, Murdoch University researchers have found.

(Phys.org)A research team in the southern Indian state of Kerala has discovered a new species of blind catfish living in a deep well. The newly discovered fish was named Horaglanis abdulkalami in honor of a former president ...

Viruses are notorious for taking over their host's operations and using them to their own advantage. But few human viruses make themselves quite as cozy as the Epstein-Barr virus, which can be found in an estimated nine out ...

Chickens were domesticated from Asian jungle fowl around 6000 years ago. Since domestication they have acquired a number of traits that are valuable to humans, including those concerning appearance, reduced aggression and ...

On a research dive in 2011 off the Aegean Sea coast of the fishing village e?mealt?, Turkey, a lucky pair of graduate students bore accidental witness to a phenomenon scientists have otherwise only ever seen in the lab: ...

A hormone called FGF21 that is secreted by the liver after eating sweets may determine who has a sweet tooth and who doesn't, according to a study in Cell Metabolism published May 2. Researchers at the Novo Nordisk Foundation ...

Young mongooses may conceal their identityeven from their own parentsto survive.

William Shakespeare wrote with a quill, Helen Keller liked her typewriter, and the oval squid prefers to use its body, when it comes to expressing love. But unlike these famous authors, the romanticisms of Sepioteuthis lessoniana ...

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The first sequencing of a channel catfish genome - Phys.Org

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The tea plant has a whopper genome, four times that of coffee, scientists find – Washington Post

Posted: at 10:35 pm

From a single species of plant comes many teas. The tea tree, a shrub called Camellia sinensis,produces white, green, black and oolong teas. The tea's destiny is a matter of variables. The final drink reflects the tea cultivar, the growing environment and how the leaves areprocessed dried, crushed, steamed, blended. Farmers pluck baby leaves, as one Snapple commercial put it in the mid-2000s, to begin makingwhite tea.

And yet scientists in China, South Korea and the United States say there is another way to further tea's potential, beyond altering the dirt or the stages of harvest or processing.

DNA analysis could lead toa more diversified set of tea flavors by tracing the genes responsible for taste, according to Lizhi Gao, a botany professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Kunming Institute of Botany. Heand colleagues have completed the first high-quality genome of thetea tree shrub, published this week in the journal Molecular Plant.

The plant took five years to analyze, thanks to the sheer numberof DNA sequences involved. The tea tree genome is extremely large, Gao wrote in an email to The Washington Post counting 3 billion base pairs, about four times the size of coffee's genome.

Of hot and invigorating drinks, coffee getsmost of the buzz, at least in the United States: This country is home to140 million daily coffee drinkersand the StarbucksUnicorn Frappuccino, and Americans consume more coffee than people anywhere else. Researchers sequenced thegenome of robustacoffee in 2014, hinting at a future of genetically modified coffees, as The Post reported at the time. Scientists followed up with the arabica coffee genomein January.

Monday markedthe tea tree's turn. It was a long time coming. Dried plants, recently found in a Chinese mausoleum, revealed that emperors in the Han Dynasty enjoyed tea2,100 years ago, possibly as part of a soup. Thesovereigns were onto something. Today, 3 billion people drink tea, and by one estimate, for everymug of coffee consumed on the planet, humans drinkthree cups of tea.

Gao and hiscolleagues had to churn through the tea tree's huge levels of retrotransposons. These repeated DNA sequences, about 80 percent of the tea genome, duplicated themselves into the genome again and again over 50 million years of tea tree evolution.It is a mystery why retrotransposon sequences are abundant in this plant but not in another, Gao said.

But the researchers were most interested not in size but in the waytea produces tastymolecules. The tea-processing industries in tea-drinking countries, especially in China, have developed numerous tea products with diverse tea flavor, Gao said. But processing techniques alone aren't enough, he said. Tea also depends ondeveloping new plantvarieties, containing unique combinations of flavorful molecules.

Three types of chemicals are most responsible for tea's taste. One is an amino acidonly found in tea, called l-theanine, whichin the last decade has been added todrinks that promote focus andconcentration. (Such focus drinks are of dubious efficacyand lack supporting research.)

The second type of chemical is a class of flavonoid, or plant pigment molecule, called catechins.The third is caffeine, which evolvedin tea independently of cacao and coffee, akin to the way both sea turtles and dolphins evolved flippers separately.

There are several theories as to why plants produce caffeine. Caffeine at high doses is a natural pesticide. Butat low doses, as in some nectars, it may be giving insects a memorable jolt.Caffeine was one tool in tea's repertoire ofdisease defense and environmental stress tolerance methods to help it adapt globally to diverse habitats, Gao said.

The tea genome answered a question the scientist had long pondered: Why can't we make tea from closeCamelliasinensis cousins, such as the tea oil plantCamellia oleifera?

It turns out thatC. oleifera and its 100 other Camelliarelatives do not produce high amounts of the caffeine or catechin family of genes.(Caffeine and catechins are not proteins but secondary metabolites, which means manygenes are required to constructthem.) Put another way, Gao said, the expression levels of caffeine- and catechin-related genes determines the tea processing suitability.

The chief horticulturist at Britain's Royal Horticultural Society, Guy Barter, said plant breeders would welcome this work. Once you understand the basis for the flavors and the processing quality of the tea, you can then have genetic markers that breeders can look for when trying to produce new varieties, he told the BBC.

Bees love caffeine, too and tricky flowers take advantage

Genetically modified coffee could be just around the corner

The European Space Agency sent Kombucha into space for science and stuff

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The tea plant has a whopper genome, four times that of coffee, scientists find - Washington Post

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Now that scientists have mapped the barley genome, better beer could be the result – Digital Trends

Posted: at 10:35 pm

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(Gbt)y^nQM]%yXAQ2k$PP>$}ubWNB?kYf{.=9))U-A`_es#)sRSRp/4#2WI:7&.!yY7^_07 "*1JcUO_BFd39`3@~zKqEZ_N AExtDMYAa%Z xR?(q.++Mh>`PtwJ]+2m9D[8A2OLk{ L80O6l>bZ5IHnr0.^M1mrlj*:5lyp0$=bUk:B UC6` 3{`gSVJh"r(]K3UhxkZFr|Y;q}T)3,RZe,i"u)R=*h1}/k&Q&4Cv,#=%k%:u&uqT;@k (zw(0TVUu+D7H[V{ A|!Wy3c 1-Y9#+PUl7v^ -jUES~VM_BHd90# jy(yEHM+1dTV,O!FD*CD"i21n9S(;qM['W=-t-9 f0,'DPK:.@Ah7cNJPvA(KYL~l Wi9 f}V3oJR~7DjD?:?Sr2I*I R@{YK(U.Bvt>p6mKnrU@2Fj uvHU&yy&(?pJ:0Td VLHlF[LkpYB5xa(a85`Qg 9Jo ,n=29c!k,` #X*ut!jFoR"MEKm=iKE_2-I7o>D cm/YNceYZ Wu{I=Q SvkjW};?@S?v`YJ jOx^ /I f3klm2m'^_o~>{)l+I{ g[=YJQC1 t2jcgLt,o^b`}jhX1 )H1fJGu#clp ArjS9fx% @sB7rw-DKyikpJ@9TA$%-`#b\W74+VMg<3h'xx'$H,bP2m6C6ctB0!L> .t!(<73ty.5_b;"UCiKK{Kj41$*0`I D52R'LYhf0@92v?fE/LFljb9] 3,RCB1= )Anh`0bEyq"G8E% taW`*mWu!7wf)dr4v#L-7a1.Byk1}^#$xE|*}{6AZAwk2 "OQMw Mb &yvi3t., o,aTo,@b,dh8>#mCz{4R%`:dytpYO2Q3|4w0?ODGH!u%#t2Bp=LF`aqbu0Kf:Lt?g1S9gmOqNfF}%dl*KSP+|,$B[q#~p5Ih:KW5C3c[c[K|V{ 0bLUzzk*VbK)?Z"UV$F-vU[atFC3'P3o9hd(q2[)KK=(Az:ub+zOzAiHi(I0:qh.l]64K.~_|lt[33p#pKrR)Ivnlm'S(J !(.z aawwmL$3`0? 7d-uOf50yUI_!q&BUC,yWn@8.Ut,H8*0sP`Rt8NDjc8RD`fpqJE!Pg=nti@RyF80WJl(at-P752='r)FWEt r96x m)y}?vMQE'DV=]i3kx"b)LNt4QZ~dm{xdHG`NuyVGU1t1*pqlfSSLD';;$$AJ#l_S$y>H$g_`hcK^d%rj.rau.wLlyMq=u^SD :V/>Hi ;!1I4b{OqODH ZkLN'iU/~gA1 (HYJlGT|RTL]dye*|ai<}P|H*,]`/up1yS HEb%cx l7?U=D_SD2,b-pI;C !@6bEJq{ Q)qjTMA8 "2WnX8s'!#UpI`l{)b3c L50&D8"86jXYc)=`=/Ht0.L; vxqp~N-Y^(0b5|_u,@ Bs|2#K8Mmbp.% nu}@{zDb.&62 3P;V5m^qPrf!(ye)`+tH`0Z4`-5Q&gN(Xv =1X5X 4<+;qnB- IKW>PQ+lVCzx$KtRoiFiTS $s(AR?y)AxS'T -I5.p>QQykM2JIq*g!f>7q+p@8_+j^_&:S1Az{[Zl:ZQyU_EuVU6EXR[l7+Gv>g- 9,;He/2&]vJ$F CW::&PD.kML/ d}QC]$)z6DVML2Adm' C$b'(8f:[L0|@4 8 #A2#O0=+P@xO8yN{6O>|_*-rQ}=El2ko`WiM *% +VknG4HU* X<9?2}g~ahu%iEk_AY[^074Z4<@3 n*uUl[2pKU+v'LKA%daR!N8Id-1q0yc4u-%!?zVNg^)@T)Rekd(9_[4b-5~Z-mTjK8M)9+9-:'G ;own">,-32UT5,[wYT[ 2|fQPRC#[v1zd8;GmP6trXlnaajz5QEbD'IXsLn )TWLo!#t0`"J>-&Ca"OKA*K^jok;4zW @TW]EyIEv. 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Now that scientists have mapped the barley genome, better beer could be the result - Digital Trends

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Researchers unravel barley’s genome – food in canada

Posted: at 10:35 pm

Gatersleben, Germany A group of researchers has mapped the entire genome of barley.

Sci-News.com (Science News) reports that the International Barley Sequencing Consortium (IBSC) announced the news in late April.

Barley, says Sci-News.com, is the worlds fourth most important cereal crop after wheat, rice and

Image: ThinkStock

maize. IBSC has published its work in the journal Nature.

Barley, says the story on Sci-News.com April 27, 2017, is cultivated in all temperate regions from the Arctic Circle to the tropics. Its known for its tolerance to cold, drought, alkali and salinity.

Barley is found in breakfast cereals and all-purpose flour and it helps bread rise, says Sci-News.com. Malted barley also gives beer its colour, body, protein and the natural sugars needed for fermentation.

In a statement, the IBSC says the mapping of barleys genome can lead to higher yields, improved pest and disease resistance and enhanced nutritional value.

It will also facilitate the development of new and better barley varieties able to cope with the demands of climate change. It should also help in the fight against cereal crop diseases, which cause millions in losses every year.

Barley, says IBSC, was first cultivated more than 15,000 years ago. It belongs to the Triticeae family, which includes wheat and rye, and that together provides around 30 per cent of the calories consumed worldwide.

In the statement, IBSC writes the sequencing will accelerate research in barley and its close relative wheat. Armed with this information breeders and scientists will be much better placed to deal with the challenge of effectively addressing the food security agenda under the constraints of a rapidly changing environment.

For more on barley and IBSC, click here.

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Researchers unravel barley's genome - food in canada

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Stool microbes predict advanced liver disease – Medical Xpress

Posted: at 10:35 pm

May 2, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)a condition that can lead to liver cirrhosis and cancerisn't typically detected until it's well advanced. Even then, diagnosis requires an invasive liver biopsy. To detect NAFLD earlier and more easily, researchers in the NAFLD Research Center at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Human Longevity, Inc. and the J. Craig Venter Institute report that the unique microbial makeup of a patient's stool sampleor gut microbiomecan be used to predict advanced NAFLD with 88 to 94 percent accuracy.

The proof-of-concept study, which involved 135 participants, is published May 2 in Cell Metabolism.

"We estimate that as many as 100 million adults and children in the U.S. may have NAFLD. Determining exactly who has or is at risk for the disease is a critical unmet medical need," said first author Rohit Loomba, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, director of the NAFLD Research Center and a faculty member in the Center for Microbiome Innovation at UC San Diego. "There are about 50 new NAFLD drugs in the pipeline, including about five that will likely be approved for use in the next two years. If we are better able to diagnose this condition, we will be better at enrolling the right types of patients in these trials, and ultimately will be better equipped to prevent and treat it."

The precise cause of NAFLD is unknown, but diet and genetics play substantial roles. Up to 50 percent of obese people are believed to have NAFLD. As mounting evidence continues to suggest that the makeup of a person's gut microbiome may influence his or her risk for obesity, Loomba and team began to wonder if the gut microbiome might also be linked to obesity-associated liver disease. If so, they hypothesized that a stool-based "read-out" of what's living in a person's gut might provide insight into his or her NAFLD status.

To answer these questions, Loomba and team examined two different patient groups. The first group included 86 patients with NAFLD, as diagnosed by biopsy. Of these, 72 had mild/moderate NAFLD and 14 had advanced disease. Collaborators at Human Longevity, Inc. sequenced the microbial genes extracted from each participant's stool sample and used that information to determine which species were living where, and the relative abundance of each. The researchers found 37 bacterial species that distinguished mild/moderate NAFLD from advanced disease, allowing them to predict which patients had advanced disease with 93.6 percent accuracy.

The team validated this finding with a second study group that included 16 patients with advanced NAFLD and 33 healthy people as controls. In this case, they found nine bacterial species whose relative numbers allowed them to distinguish NAFLD patients from the healthy volunteers, with 88 percent accuracy. Seven of these bacterial species overlapped with the signature 37 used in the previous group.

There are four main types of bacteria found in the human gut: Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. Loomba and team found that patients with advanced NAFLD tend to have more Proteobacteria and fewer Firmicutes in their stool than those with early stage NAFLD. At the species level, one major difference the researchers found was in the abundance of E. colithese bacteria were three-fold more common in advanced NAFLD patients than early stage patients.

"We believe our study sets the stage for a potential stool-based test to detect advanced liver fibrosis based simply on microbial patterns," said senior author Karen E. Nelson, PhD, president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, "or at least help us minimize the number of patients who have to undergo liver biopsies."

While Loomba estimates that a stool-based microbiome diagnostic might cost $1,500 if it were on the market today, he predicts that cost will lower to less than $400 in the next five years due to advances in genomic sequencing and analysis technologies.

While excited, the researchers caution that so far this new diagnostic approach has only been tested in a relatively small patient group at a single, highly specialized medical center. The team is now applying for grant funding to expand their study in a larger cohort across multiple sites. Even if successful, a stool-based test for NAFLD wouldn't be available to patients for at least five years, they said. Loomba also points out that while a distinct set of microbial species may be associated with advanced NAFLD, this study does not suggest that the presence or absence of these microbes causes NAFLD or vice versa.

"We are looking forward to further studies to assess the role, if any, these microbial species play in gut permeability, liver inflammation and cross-talk with other factors to induce liver injury, and ultimately influence disease progression in NAFLD," said study co-author David A. Brenner, MD, vice chancellor of UC San Diego Health Sciences and dean of UC San Diego School of Medicine.

"Understanding the microbiome, just as sequencing the human genome, is one part of the puzzle on human health and disease," said study co-author J. Craig Venter, PhD, co-founder and executive chairman of Human Longevity, Inc. "New technologies, such as machine learning, are allowing for tremendous advances to interpret these data."

Explore further: Many diabetics don't know they have serious liver disease

More information: Rohit Loomba et al, Gut Microbiome-Based Metagenomic Signature for Non-invasive Detection of Advanced Fibrosis in Human Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Cell Metabolism (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.04.001

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease in the Western world. NAFLD is a frequent finding in patients with type 2 diabetes, but the exact prevalence of NAFLD, as well as whether patients ...

A study published in the Journal of Pediatrics suggests that children born with lower or higher weight than normal may be at increased risk for developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). These children also were ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found that a form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that non-invasively measures fat density in the liver corresponds with histological (microscopic ...

A new study presented today demonstrates that a build-up of fat around the waist can cause more serious complications than obesity in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The study was presented at ...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, comprises a group of liver disorders whose prevalence is widespread and rising. It's estimated that at least one-third of Americans have NAFLD; among obese persons, the figure is ...

(HealthDay)Evidence-based recommendations have been developed for screening, diagnosis, and treatment of pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The guidelines were published online Nov. 30 in the Journal of ...

A new genetic fingerprinting technique has for the first time shown the huge genetic diversity of the malaria parasite, one of nature's most persistent and successful human pathogens.

The cells of vertebrates have evolved pathways that act like an internal defense, inhibiting viral infections by preventing replication of the pathogens. Drugs that activate those existing systems suggest a promising novel ...

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Stool microbes predict advanced liver disease - Medical Xpress

Posted in Human Longevity | Comments Off

UCPEA Classification Salary & Longevity Schedule …

Posted: at 10:35 pm

FY17

Effective July 1, 2016

Click on the Payroll Title for a listing of job titles by level.

Salary Schedule

Longevity Payment

Minimum

Midpoint

Maximum

10 Years Service (25% of full allotment)

15 Years Service (50% of full allotment)

20 Years Service (75% of full allotment)

25 Year Service (100% of full allotment)

$38,769

$52,144

$65,237

$208.50

$417.00

$625.50

$834.00

$39,993

$53,797

$67,598

$215.25

$430.50

$645.75

$861.00

$41,449

$55,762

$70,075

$223.00

$446.00

$669.00

$892.00

$43,076

$57,955

$72,834

$231.75

$463.50

$695.25

$927.00

$46,072

$62,002

$77,930

$248.00

$496.00

$744.00

$992.00

$50,540

$68,039

$85,529

$272.25

$544.50

$816.75

$1,089.00

$55,471

$74,692

$93,913

$298.75

$597.50

$896.25

$1,195.00

$60,578

$81,586

$102,594

$326.25

$652.50

$978.75

$1,305.00

$65,758

$88,582

$111,398

$354.25

$708.50

$1,062.75

$1,417.00

$71,513

$96,349

$121,188

$385.50

$771.00

$1,156.50

$1,542.00

$77,852

$104,901

$131,958

$419.50

$839.00

$1,258.50

$1,678.00

$87,074

$117,332

$147,607

$469.25

$938.50

$1,407.75

$1,877.00

NOTE: As the result of the Board of Trustees approval to extend the current UCPEA contract, the July 1, 2015 salary schedule for the UCPEA bargaining unit will remain in effect for fiscal year 2017 or until such time as a successor agreement is ratified and approved by the Board of Trustees and Legislature, whichever occurs first.

LONGEVITY: Employees in the bargaining unit shall be eligible for longevity increments in accordance with Connecticut General Statutes. The full longevity payment shall be 1.6% of the mid-point of the range according to the salary schedule.

UCP Levels by Job Family

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UCPEA Classification Salary & Longevity Schedule ...

Posted in Human Longevity | Comments Off

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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Carjacker convicted after his DNA is found on cigarette in the recovered car – OCRegister

Crime lab backlog leads to 8-month delay on rape kit DNA analysis – WLOS

Ricketts vows ‘swift action’ to collect DNA from inmates; senators consider investigation into prison system – Omaha World-Herald

Following Your DNA Trail – New York Times

The first sequencing of a channel catfish genome – Phys.Org

The tea plant has a whopper genome, four times that of coffee, scientists find – Washington Post

Now that scientists have mapped the barley genome, better beer could be the result – Digital Trends

Researchers unravel barley’s genome – food in canada

Stool microbes predict advanced liver disease – Medical Xpress

UCPEA Classification Salary & Longevity Schedule …

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